Root Words

Root words are usually nouns and describe a body component or process.

The word root is the core or central meaning of the term and is very often a reference to a specific body part. Medical terms typically have at least one word root, but may contain many of them strung together. When word roots are combined with other roots or combined with suffixes, a vowel (most often o) is used to build the word. When a root is combined with a vowel we call the new word part a combining form. For the purposes of this text we will use word root and combining form interchangeably. 

Rarely, a medical word has two or even three or more roots.

Hyphens and slashes are used to help us identify word parts or when a root has been combined with a vowel to form a combining form.